A family rights campaign group slammed Families Minister Glenn Blakeney for “dismissive behaviour” after he failed to show up to a forum on Saturday night.Mr Blakeney “humbly apologised” for not attending the event, explaining it clashed with the Progressive Labour Party’s annual banquet.Mr Blakeney was advertised as being one of five panellists at the event, sponsored by ChildWatch and The Royal Gazette.However, he did not show up, prompting the ChildWatch executive committee to e-mail him on Sunday, saying: “ChildWatch and members of the audience expressed disappointment in that [you were] not present on our distinguished panel; the remaining four panellists were in attendance.“We feel that many of our social problems today stem from the breakdown of the family. Our topic of Moving Families Forward was well received by the audience. However, we were expecting your participation based upon your acceptance of our invitation to be on the panel.“On the same note, we invited, and you accepted, an invitation to speak at our family fun day at Victoria Park on April 17, 2011. Again, you not only failed to show up, but also failed to offer a prior apology or provide for a substitute representative.“The audience and sponsors would have been more understanding had courtesy been extended by way of an apology.“Your dismissive behaviour did not speak well to your valuing the importance of family matters in our society, especially with gang problems and homicides of our youths.“Research indicates that the formation of gangs is due to dysfunctional families.”Mr Blakeney told The Royal Gazette he had a previous commitment to attend the banquet and was unable to attend the forum because of that.“It was my mistake in not informing them,” he admitted. “I do humbly apologise, and I will make myself available to facilitate such a meeting again. It was a very worthy and timely meeting.”In an apologetic e-mail to the ChildWatch executive, he explained that he tried his best to attend both Saturday’s events, but this turned out to be “an impossible task”.He added: ‘Regarding the former event, I believe that I was travelling, which was previously explained, and though Acting Ministers are inclined to attend events committed by the substantive Minister, they also have to juggle their schedule pending their own respective previous commitments.“Unfortunately, I did not have a telephone contact person or number to inform you of my unfortunate dilemma.”He listed a number of other family events he has recently attended as indicating his “perspective and sincerity”, and repeated the offer to make himself available for a follow-up meeting.A total of 16 adults and a handful of children attended Saturday’s event.The other panellists, former Attorney General Phil Perinchief, former United Bermuda Party Senator Suzann Holshouser, school counsellor Anthony Peets and political commentator Ras Mykkal spoke of their concerns about Bermuda’s broken families.Host and ChildWatch founder Eddie Tavares called for a shared parenting law in Bermuda, which he believes would make it easier for both parents to stay in a child’s life following relationship breakdown.Such legislation is already in place in Australia, France, Denmark, Belgium and a number of US states, and ChildWatch has been pressing the Bermuda Government to move forward with it for several years.Mr Perinchief agreed that Government needs to take steps to deal with the “inconsistent” handling of family law cases and the “adversarial” way family breakdowns can be dealt with in court.He pushed for shared parenting legislation during his time as Government’s top lawyer.Ms Holshouser said: “The legislation has to change.” She said that when families communicate with the help of mediation and co-parenting laws, children’s needs are put at the centre of discussions, rather than leaving them in the middle and feeling alienated.Asked if Government would consider shared parenting legislation, Mr Blakeney said: “I think there’s merit, certainly, for consideration.”